The greatest Jay ever, in terms of career, is obviously Roger Clemens.

However, since I can't stand Clemens, I need a definition that doesn't include him. So I'll go with value to the Blue Jays.

Also, players get bonus points if the majority of their productive years are with the Jays, or if they keep coming back and being awesome (see Fernandez, Tony).

My top 5, in no particular order:

Stieb. Very good for a reasonable amount of time, wasn't good anywhere but TO.

Fernandez - appeared to love TO, and was also very good. Is remembered in Cleveland for losing the WOrld Series, but in TO we remember thinking that he was better than Ripken for alot of the years that Ripken was around. At least defensively anyways.

Ernie Whitt - no reason, except that I have a non-sexual man crush on him. That's also a qualification.

Tom Henke - severly underrated. He's better than most of today's closers, but you'd never know it based on the number of saves they get.

Delgado - I am sad and don't want to talk about this.

Who bears the mantle of "Greatest Jay"?

Could be so many people. Like:

Jay Bell
Jay Buhner
Jay Gibbons
Jay Howell
Jay Johnstone
Jay Tibbs

I'll pick Jay Tibbs.

Now all-time Blue Jay? My all-time favourite is Willie Upshaw, but that's not based on talent or performance.

I'd have to go with Delgado. I don't think he'll be remembered as such, though, as he wasn't a member of the World Series teams. If I had to pick someone from that era, I'd take Alomar.

Mike, that's hilarious. We may need to set up an All-Jay team. How many Jays have been Jays?

http://www.geocities.com/deviant_weirdos
It's gotta be Gruber! Silver Slugger and Gold Glove in the same year...... ohhhhhh yeah!

We may need to set up an All-Jay team.

Here you go - A full 25 man roster

Starting Lineup
---
C Jay Owens
1B Jay Gibbons
2B Jay Canizaro
SS Jay Bell
3B Jay Partridge
RF Jay Buhner
CF Jay Payton
LF Jay Johnstone

Bench
---
C Jay Porter
1B Jay Kirke
2B Jay Difani
2B Jay Loviglio
OF Jay Hankins
OF Jay Werth

Rotation
---
Jay Hughes SP
Jay, Joey SP
Jay Tibbs SP
Jay Hook SP
Jay Witasik SP

Bullpen
---
Jay Aldrich RP
Jay Baller RP
Jay Durocher RP
Jay Ritchie RP
Jay Howell RP
Jay Powell Closer

Manager: Jay Faatz

It's gotta be Gruber! Silver Slugger and Gold Glove in the same year...... ohhhhhh yeah!

Don't forget -- and it was hard to, because he kept mentioning it -- Superstars champion!

You forgot Joey Jay.

No I didn't. Look closer.

If we're speaking of best career performance as a Jay, it'd be Stieb, narrowly over Delgado. Stieb gave them 10 very good to great seasons out of 11 in the eighties. By the time he's finished, Delgado will likely end up with a much better career overall.

If we're speaking of best player who put in some of his great years in TO, that'd be Clemens.

Yeah, I know; I typed that in response to your first list, before I refreshed and saw the complete team. My bad.

If you narrow the definition to "best player ever to wear a Jays uniform," I assume your finalists are Molitor, Winfield and Clemens.

Or if its "most talented player while in a Jays Uniform"

I'm thinking Alomar... though 2 Cy Youngs still looks pretty good...

The greatest Jay, only taking time in a Jay's uniform into account would be either Alomar or Delgado, with Steib running next.

The greatest player ever to wear a Jays uniform:

Roger Clemens
Rickey Henderson

Well if it's simply "greatest player to wear the uniform", then wacky choices like Henderson and Phil Neikro would keep guys like Fernandez off the list. Hm... Dave Parker, Frank Viola... who else was there? Obviously Winfield and Molitor... Randy Myers was pretty good for awhile, though maybe not better than Fernandez.

And don't forget Tom Henke, for Jays value and career value.

how about duane ward.
setup man and closer
key to their world series

Oooh, I thought Brooklyn had answered in Haiku. This would have amused me greatly. Now I see there's something quite devilish about his post.

I'm inclined to think Delgado's nine good-to-great years noses out Stieb's nine (Stieb also tosses in two mediocre years - 86 and 87 - and three partial years). But I could go other way.

I don't think there are any other contenders. Clemens and Molitor were probably greater than either Delgado or Stieb while they were here, but it's just five years. Combined.

We get talking every year about Bruce Sutter's HoF case. Sutter, as it happens struck out exactly 861 batters in his career. That's the exact same number as Tom Henke, by happy coincidence.

Of course, Sutter needed 1042 IPT in 661 games, whereas Henke did it in 789 IPT (in 642 games). Henke had 311 saves to Sutter's 300, and a 2.67 ERA to Sutter's 2.83. Henke, of course, spent most of his career in the DH league. They each pitched in 1 WS and saved two games as their team won the championship. (Henke's post-season is 2-0, 6 saves, 1.83 ERA in 15 games; Sutter is 2-0, 3 saves, 3.00 ERA in 6 games.)

Sutter is a historically important pitcher for a number of reasons, but its hard to see how he was actually better than Henke, whom no one talks about for the HoF.

Alberto Castillo(He should've been in a shampoo commercial)
Craig Grebeck and Jeff Frye(two of the "small" contributors of the Jays)

Hmm... Best All Time Jay. I'd put a 5 year requirement on it to keep one or two year wonders off the list (such as Clemens)

By Position...
RH SP: Stieb
LH SP: Key
Closer: Henke
Setup: Ward

CA: Whitt (Borders gets special mention for 2 WS rings)
1B: Delgado
2B: Alomar
3B: Mulliniks
SS: Fernandez
LF: Bell
CF: Moseby
RF: Barfield
DH: Carter

OK, I'm a big 1985 fan.

For best ever it is hard. Alomar is tempting but just the 5 seasons so I'll go with Stieb.

Battle for the best outfield tandem in club history

1. Bell,Moseby and Barfield
2. Maldonado,White and Carter
3. Stewart,Cruz Jr. and Shawn Green

which is the best in your opinion

Gross - Wells - Rios (in due time....)

It's a little known fact that Roberto Alomar has the highest career batting average in Blue Jays history. Robby's average is .307 behind him at .301 is Shannon Stewart

Lloyd Moseby has the career Stolen Base record with 255

The greatest would have to be Tony Fernandez for batting in 5 runs while batting 7th in the greatest and longest WS game ever, game 4 of the '93 WS. He had a mediocre start as a Met, came "home" in June and caught fire and lifted the whole team. Tony only had 50 RBIs and wound up .306. That team was part of the reason Clemens was 11-14 with an era of 4.46.